Summary
Do you have a green thumb? If you like working with plants and flowers, you might be interested in a career in floral design. Floral designers bring joy to others through their work. Floral design is more than just being able to grow or cut plants. Floral designers also know the meaning behind flowers to make sure they provide the right blooms for the right occasion. How does someone become a floral designer? What kinds of work do they do? These activities will help you to better understand the skills needed to be a floral designer.
Overview
Career Title: Floral Designer
What career cluster does this fall under? Marketing, Sales, and Services
What do floral designers do? Floral designers arrange flowers to express a message. They serve their customers by providing what they need for any occasion. Customer service and communication skills are key as you work closely with others to provide exactly what they need.
What skills are essential if you want to enter this career?
Communication: Floral designers have to be able to work with customers to figure out both what they need and what they can afford.
Creativity: Floral designers need to be able to create works of art by using a variety of plants.
Dependability: Floral designers have to get their creations to events and places on time. Customers count on them.
Detail-oriented: Customers expect specific arrangements. It is critical that a floral designer deliver exactly what the customer expects.
Self-motivated: Floral designers must stay on task and finish a project. Since floral designers may also run their own businesses, it is essential that they are able to set goals and achieve them.
What type of education do you need to succeed in this career field?
Some college education is preferred. If you have a goal of running your own business, a college degree will provide the skills needed to help you succeed.
What is the average salary for this career field?
$30,000/year
Materials
Floral Design Page (attached)
Tips for Keeping Flowers Fresh (attached)
Computer
Internet access
Pen or pencil
Eraser
Fine point marker (optional)
Paper
What to Do
These activities will help you will learn more about the work of a floral designer. You will match flowers to their meaning, hear from a floral designer about what the work is like from day to day, and design your own arrangement. You can also improve your "green thumb" by learning tips and tricks for preserving flowers as the professional floral designers do.
Activity #1 Finding Flower Meanings
Did you know that every flower has a special meaning?
People used to (and sometimes still do) give flowers based on their meaning. It is helpful for a floral designer to know the meaning behind certain flowers so they don’t send the wrong message. Test your flower knowledge in this matching game.
Materials:
Computer or personal device
Internet access
Instructions:
Visit this H5P link to play a matching game. Can you match each flower to its meaning? If you don’t get it right the first time, click to retry. See how many tries it takes you to match them all up. For an added challenge, find a friend and see who can figure it out in the fewest tries. Hint: The answer key can be found in the Resources list at the bottom of this page.
Activity #2 Career Talk
What is the life of a floral designer really like? Find out more in the activity below.
Materials:
Computer or personal device
Internet access
Paper
Pen or pencil
Instructions:
Think about what you already know about floral designers. On a piece of paper write down a few notes about what you know. Then watch the "Floral Designer" video below to learn more about what the day-to-day work looks like:
Now that you have watched the video, think "What did I learn today?"
Return to your paper and read what you wrote before the video. Write down what you learned from the video or what you saw that you already thought was true but hadn’t added to your paper yet. Did anything surprise you?
Activity 3 - Design an Arrangement
Some floral designers build their creations from the flowers in their shop, designing as they go, but other times it may be important to sketch out designs for a client to approve. Designing floral arrangements for a big event requires a designer be imaginative and creative.
The video series linked below walks through the process of sketching out a variety of flowers so you can design your own arrangements. You can watch just one or two of the videos or watch the entire series. The third video in the series offers great tips for designing a bouquet and bringing a lot of different flowers together.
After practicing along with the videos, draw your finished design on the attached Floral Design Page or on your own paper.
Materials:
Computer or personal device
Internet access
Floral Design Page (attached) or paper
Pencil
Eraser
Fine point marker (optional) for finishing details
Instructions:
Watch the first video, Mini Floral Doodles, to learn how to draw small simple flowers, by clicking here. You can skip ahead to 1:37 to get started.
As you watch the video, pause it along the way to sketch out the images the artist is drawing.
Once you have a good understanding of how to draw mini floral doodles, take it a step further and learn How to Draw Flowers in this step-by-step video by clicking here.
As you watch the video, pause it along the way to sketch out the images the artist is drawing.
Next, learn How to Design a Floral Illustration, again pausing along the way to sketch out the images the artist is drawing. You can find the final video by clicking here.
Once you have learned the basics of floral art, create your own arrangement design using the vases on the Floral Design Page or your own paper.
Extend
Want to know more? The next level of flower talk focuses on how floral designers keep their flowers so fresh looking. This activity will let you in on some insider secrets.
Materials:
Tips for Keeping Flowers Fresh (attached)
Computer or personal device
Internet access
Instructions:
Read the attached article Tips for Keeping Flowers Fresh with insider tips on how florists manage to keep flowers lasting longer.
Think about all that you have learned about floral designers. If you could share one important thing you have learned, or something new that you now understand, what would it be? What would you share if you made it a meme? Visit https://makeameme.org/.
Create a meme to show what you have thought about or what you learned from the floral designer activities. If you post your meme on social media don’t forget to tag it #GEARUPWorks
Sources
All of the sources that were linked throughout the activity are listed below. Providing a list of sources allows us to give credit for the work someone else made.
Campbell, S. (2020, February 14). How to design a floral illustration. [Video]. https://youtu.be/JDp0IHJOGQ8
Campbell, S. (2020, February 7). Mini floral doodles: Learn to draw simple flowers. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7DjJzd4guM&t=97s
Campbell, S. (2020, February 11). How to draw flowers: Florals step by step [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/vR96m64KpUg
Career Crate. (2009, August 19). Floral designer [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb-H-E4kuvU
K20 Center. (n.d.). What did I learn today? Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/169
K20 Center. (n.d.). What do you meme? Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/984
Make a Meme.org. (2021). https://makeameme.org/
Perkins, R. (2019, November 7). How to keep flowers fresh until delivery: 4 tips for florists. Delivery Concepts. https://deliveryconcepts.com/how-to-keep-flowers-fresh-until-delivery-4-tips-for-florists/
Flower Meaning Matching Key:
